There was not a lot of water but that made the hike less slippery. Trail was pretty easy to follow and marked well. There was one time I was confused right when I turned around to come back but I look at my app/map and figured it out pretty quickly

This is a pretty heavily trafficked trail in the area, and street parking can be a bit difficult to find so don't be too discouraged if you have to park quite a ways away. The trail itself starts out fairly open on old pavement into dirt. Eventually you will begin your descent in the forest, and it is a bit jungle-y (very muddy after recent rainfall and very humid). Eventually it will take you to 3 waterfalls, one of which has rope swings if you're feeling adventurous. The falls area does tend to get quite busy so don't assume you will have it to yourself. The trek back can be tiring uphill through the mud and over root systems.

This is a tough one - I rate it very difficult and recommend only for experienced hikers who are looking for a challenge. However, if you are just after a pleasant walk with some lovely views of south-central Oahu, go do only the first 2.5-3 miles. It's lovely and safe for dogs and/or children, and you can carry a snack out to the picnic table that is located around 2 miles out. You'll follow a paved path, then a wide dirt road, skip the right-hand turn-off to the waterfall, ignore the "Trail Impassable" sign, and travel through some cool red-dirt formations and finally a cool, grassy path. There's plenty of strawberry guava to enjoy along mile 2, ripe around August and September.

Running/walking shoes would be fine for the first two miles, but after that you need real hiking shoes with strong tread. If you're planning to summit, bring/wear pants for miles 3-7 and a light jacket. There's cold wind and killer underbrush up on the ridges. If planning to summit, attempt on a day when there's a 0-10% chance of precipitation and it did NOT rain the previous day or two. Even with no forecast of rain, you're likely to get sprinkled on up there. If it's cloudy, you won't be able to see a thing and may have to turn back. Go on a super clear and sunny day.

You'll know when the real hike starts - after passing through the strawberry guava and seeing lots of lovely white and purple orchids in a windblown pass, you'll head up a long steep hill and find yourself out of breath for the first time. The rest of the hike will be like this (but harder) for about another 2.5-3 miles, for a total of 5-ish miles out and 5-ish miles back. I wish I had counted the number of peaks you ascend and descend as you approach the summit - there are many; it must be in the double digits. Up, down, up, down, gradually requiring more use of the hands and arms, gradually getting muddier, and as you near the summit, more of the ridges become frighteningly narrow and you find yourself clinging to ferns for dear life. The wind is very strong on top of these ridges and you may even need to just hunker down when the big gusts come.

Speaking of the ferns...the trail is pretty overgrown once you hit the third mile and the underbrush will DESTROY your legs if you don't have some pants or tall socks for protection. The first part of the hike is hot, though, so even if you don't want to wear pants the whole way, I definitely recommend bringing some for the second and third phase of the hike. (See my photo. I was desperate. I always read all of the reviews but somehow nobody had mentioned the need for pants.)

Bring tons of water and many snacks high in protein and carbs - you're gonna burn tons of fuel on this climb. There's not any bouldering and the ropes are not essential to the climbs, but they are helpful. The trail is not as well maintained as many on Oahu, and you need to be prepared for that. You may want to wear/bring spikes for your shoes. While there is concern about these destroying the foliage, the foliage on this trail is thriving and there's a lot of mud, so I found myself wishing I had some spikes, even though I had on high-quality hiking boots with excellent tread.

I rarely rate trails lower than a 4 or 5 because I love them all. However, the dense underbrush and apparent lack of trail maintenance made this one really difficult and prompted me to give it a 3.5, although I did enjoy it and plan to do it again.

If you like it long and hard, this is the one for you. Bring more water than you think you'll need, and wear/bring pants if you plan to summit. Should also start early. The ripe guava in August were very nice.

It doesn't start off too exciting but the falls are a good reward. You can jump from the cliffs into the water and even swing from the ropes to cool off. There is a good amount of sun exposure at the beginning of the trail, but once you get going deeper into the forest you reach more coverage.